New Book Trailer: Weakness is the Way by J.I. Packer

This new book, Weakness is the Way by J.I. Packer, was commended to us in class today.  I intend on grabbing a copy…maybe you should too.

Weakness is the Way by J. I. Packer from Crossway on Vimeo.

Jesus Loves Me: Two New Verses to Help Parents Teach Justification

This past weekend Keri and I took our kids to see a Slugs and Bugs kids’ concert at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, TX.  Randall Goodgame, the driving force behind the music of Slugs and Bugs, performed a lot of the songs our family has been rockin’ in the minivan over the past year.  One song he performed that stuck with me was Jesus Loves Me with two new verses he added.  These two verses are a great tool for helping parents teach their kids the doctrine of justification – when we trust in Christ alone to save us from sin, God declares us righteous on the basis of Jesus’ perfect life and sacrificial death, and, therefore, loves us as he loves Jesus.  This means that for those kids who trust in Jesus, he loves them when they do the right thing and when they do the wrong thing (see 2 Corinthians 5:21 and Romans 4:5-8).  Here are the lyrics, old and new (the new verses are in bold print):

Jesus loves me this I know
For the Bible tells me so
Little ones to him belong
They are weak but he is strong

Chorus:

Yes Jesus loves me
Yes Jesus loves me
Yes Jesus loves me
The Bible tells me so

Jesus loves me when I’m good
When I act just like I should
When I say thank you and please
Brush my teeth and wash my knees

Jesus loves me when I’m bad
When I talk back to my dad
When I stomp and whine and pout
(And) poke my bottom lip right out

Don’t Give Up on the Suburbs

In his book, Suburbianity, Pastor Byron Yawn addresses the damage suburban Christianity has done to the gospel and the church.  But he writes not simply as a critic, but as one who has a heart for suburbanites.  With all of the emphasis these days on church planting in cities and urban areas, I fear that many Christians have thrown up their hands and given up on the suburbs, but I appreciate Yawn’s heart for the people who live there and his desire to help them get back to biblical Christianity.  Here’s a quote from the introduction:

It’s important to understand that my target audience [in wiring this book] is the Christians wandering aimlessly out in the American suburbs, unaware that they are currently imbibing a designer religion that has no essential relationship to Christianity.  I’m writing to soccer moms and white-collar dads.  What we count as Christian was made in America.  It is not the faith once imported from the streets of Jerusalem.  The seeker movement, which reaped its bounty in the materialistic wonderland of the American suburbs over the last several decades, has left behind a biblically desolate landscape behind it.  Those who now wander through its vestiges Sunday after Sunday are unaware of the magnificent truth contained in the true message of the church of Christ – the gospel.  Much of what they have been told Christianity has to offer, it doesn’t.  But what they actually need, it does.  My heart hurts for suburbanites.  I want them to see it.  It is glorious.

Summer Reading List for Church Planting

In about four weeks my family leaves for California so I can be a part of Grace Advance – a summer training initiative for pastors seeking to give leadership to developing churches.  It’s a ministry of Grace Community Church which is the church where John MacArthur has been pastoring for over 40 years.  I feel humbled and privileged that the elders of our church are sending me there as we move toward planting a church next year.

At Grace Advance they’re having us read a lot of books this summer, so I thought it might be informative to list them out, especially since I had not heard of several of them previously:

• The Master’s Plan for the Church by John MacArthur
• Worship: The Ultimate Priority by John MacArthur
• The Gospel and Personal Evangelism by Mark Dever
• Evangelism: How to Share the Gospel Faithfully by John MacArthur and the Grace Community Church Staff
• The Trellis and the Vine by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne
• Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church: A Guide for Ministry by Michael Lawrence
• A Portrait of Paul: Identifying a True Minister of Christ by Rob Ventura and Jeremy Walker
• Called to Lead: 26 Lessons from the Life of the Apostle Paul by John MacArthur
• The Church: The Gospel Made Visible by Mark Dever
• 9 Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever
• Exemplary Spiritual Leadership: Facing the Challenges, Escaping the Dangers by Jerry Wragg
• The Brokenhearted Evangelist by Jeremy Walker
• Perspectives on Christian Worship: Five Views Edited by J. Matthew Pinson
• Preach the Word: Essays on Expository Preaching in Honor of R. Kent Hughes Edited by Todd A. Wilson
• The Deliberate Church: Building Your Ministry on the Gospel by Mark Dever and Paul Alexander
• Authentic Worship: Scripture’s Voice, Applying its Truth by Herbert Bateman
• The Best Kept Secret of Christian Mission: Promoting the Gospel with More Than Our Lips by John Dickson
• Planting, Watering, Growing: Planting Confessionally Reformed Churches in the 21st Century by Daniel R. Hyde and Shane Lems
• Engaging with God: A Biblical Theology of Worship by David G. Peterson
• The Nuts and Bolts of Church Planting: A Guide for Starting Any Kind of Church by Aubrey Malphurs
• What is the Mission of the Church: Making Sense of Social Justice, Shalom and the Great Commission by Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert
• The Shepherd Leader: Achieving Effective Shepherding in Your Church by Timothy Z. Witmer
• Excellence: The Character of God and the Pursuit of Scholarly Virtue by Andreas J. Kostenberger
• Christ-Centered Worship: Letting the Gospel Shape Our Practice by Bryan Chapell

Another Free App from Desiring God: Ask Pastor John

Yet again we have more free content being put out by Desiring God Ministries, and so I want to draw your attention to the Ask Pastor John app for the iPhone or iPad.  It provides access to a daily podcast wherein John Piper is asked to shed light on a different biblical or practical issue inside the realm of Christianity.

Each podcast is about five minutes long, but packed with content from a sound theological mind, combined with 33 years of pastoral experience.

Download the app here.

If you are a lowly Android user like me, you can download the Sound Cloud app and subscribe to the Ask Pastor John feed and you’ve got it.  Be blessed and may wisdom increase!

The Calvary Bible Church App

Calvary Bible Church in Fort Worth, Texas, where I am associate pastor, now has an app!  We’re now officially hip, right?  Or has the world moved on from apps and we failed to notice?  Anyway, if you’re interested, the app is free over at the App Store for Apple devices and the Google Play store for android devices.

Using the app, you can access several of our sermon series and Sunday school messages, as well as an event calendar and  some other cool stuff.  We’re just trying to make it easier for our members, and anyone else, to be pointed to Jesus through a ministry that is seeking to be gospel-centered in all it teaches.  We pray it blesses your soul!

Click to get the app for Apple devices

Click to get the app for Android devices 

The Best Old Testament Commentaries…and They’re Not Just for Pastors

I had a birthday last week, and on top of an evening out with the family and lots of “Happy Birthday” Facebook posts, I was stoked to open the mailbox and find that I am still getting birthday money from my loved ones even though I’m 32 years-old.

So, I had a bit of a shopping spree on Amazon, and two books I jumped on quickly were the volumes I needed to complete my set of Dale Ralph Davis’ Focus on the Bible Old Testament Commentaries.  Davis was an Old Testament professor at Reformed Theological Seminary and now he is the pastor of Woodland Presbyterian Church in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Davis wrote the commentaries in this series for Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, and 2 Kings.  Last year I taught 1 Kings in my 12-18 year-old guys’ Sunday school class and found that his book was the best I had encountered in Old Testament commentaries.  It was solid theologically and extremely insightful without being lofty.  It was readable and accessible without being shallow… and I must say, pretty funny too.  I highly recommend his stuff!

Neighboring Your Neighbors

This weekend I finished reading The Art of Neighboring by Jay Pathak and Dave Runyon.  I give it a hearty recommendation as a book that gave me just the kick in the pants I needed at this time in my life.

The book operates on the premise that many of us Christians do relatively well when it comes to loving our neighbors at church and inside our Christian ghettos, but not so well when it comes to our actual neighbors – those who live next door, across the street, and around the corner.

I think the book is written mainly for those who have already come to the conclusion that they need to reach out to their neighbors.   It is less of a theoretical, “here’s why you should love the guy next door” kind of book, and more of a how-to manual for neighborhood ministry.

One of the strengths of the book is all of the examples of real people who made real sacrifices to show the love of Christ to those who live closest to them spatially.  This book recommends a plan that doesn’t just look good on paper, there are people who are taking it seriously and working it out.

We have lived in our house for nearly seven years and as I look back over that time I see a handful of piddly attempts to love our neighbors.  When I picked up this book, the Lord was already moving me toward repentance for my neglect of being a good neighbor, but the sad thing is that we are moving out of this house in about six weeks.  There is still time for some small opportunity, but I urge you to pick up this book and ask the Lord to help you love your neighbors in light of his love for you.  Don’t make the mistake I made.

How Can We See the Depth of Jesus’ Love for Us?

In a culture where we use the word “love” to describe our affection for things as trivial as candy and then turn ar0und to use it in an intimate expression toward a spouse, we need some helping qualifying the statement “Jesus love me”.  

What are we talking about when we refer to Jesus’ love for those who trust him?  How do we measure the depth of that love?  In his Holy Week devotional, Love to the Uttermost, John Piper gives four ways the depth of Christ’s love is revealed:

1. We will see the depth of Christ’s love for us by the greatness of what it costs him.
2. We will see the depth of Christ’s love for us by how little we deserve it.
3. We will see the depth of Christ’s love for us by the greatness of the benefits we receive in being loved by him.
4. We will see the depth of Christ’s love for us by the freedom with which he loves us (that is, there are no constraints on his love).

A Resource for Praying God’s Words Back to Him

Yesterday on Facebook, John Piper highlighted a stellar resource for prayer.  It’s a compilation of approximately 1500 Scripture promises and prayers called Take Words With You by Tim Kerr.  This resource is designed to be used as manual in helping you praise God and plead with God based on what he has already said in the Bible.

Here’s what Kerr has to say in the Introduction about the importance of praying Scripture:

There are two words that are very powerful when used in prayer.  These words are simply, “you said”.  In Genesis 31:2, God makes a promise to Jacob.  Involved in that promise is one of the most faith-giving promises in Scripture – “I will be with you”.  A promise that means God will do us good and pour out his favor upon us!  Then later, when in deep crises, Jacob cries out to God in prayer and reminds God of his promise to him.  Listen to what he says:

But you said, ‘I will surely do you good’…and Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good.’  (Genesis 32:12, 32:9)

The fuel of an intercessor is the promises of God.  We remind God in prayer of what he has said and call him to be faithful to his word.  Attaching God’s promises to people and situations is the very backbone of all faith-filled praying.

This resource is only $0.99 for the Kindle version.  It seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it?